This born-digital document provides a description of the Topley LTSP site pedon.
This document is a photocopy of a 1994 draft report prepared by Scagel, Hickling, and Evans for BC Ministry of Forests, Silviculture Branch. The document includes annotations by Lorne Bedford, BC MoF (ret.).
During a year away from studies in 1987-88, Dr. Paul Sanborn developed a successful grant proposal to the Science Council of BC (SCBC) to pursue a postdoctoral project with Dr. Tim Ballard in relation to sulphur-deficient soils in BC and prescribed fire. This project built on an existing broadcast burning study conducted by Macmillan Bloedel Ltd. near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, led by Bill Beese (later at Vancouver Island University). Dr. Sanborn's work addressed sulphur forms and amounts in the soils at these sites, and the chemical processes influencing sulphur availability in relation to prescribed fire.
Only one part of this work was eventually published:
Sanborn, P.T. and T.M. Ballard. 1991. Combustion losses of sulphur from conifer foliage: Implications of chemical form and soil nitrogen status. Biogeochemistry 12: 129–134.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00001810
The remainder of the work was documented in this Project Completion Report to SCBC, dated February 28, 1990, and entitled "Effects of Prescribed Fire on Sulphur in Forest Soils".
During a year away from studies in 1987-88, Dr. Paul Sanborn developed a successful grant proposal to the Science Council of BC (SCBC) to pursue a postdoctoral project with Dr. Tim Ballard in relation to sulphur-deficient soils in BC and prescribed fire. This project built on an existing broadcast burning study conducted by Macmillan Bloedel Ltd. near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, led by Bill Beese (later at Vancouver Island University). Dr. Sanborn's work addressed sulphur forms and amounts in the soils at these sites, and the chemical processes influencing sulphur availability in relation to prescribed fire.
Only one part of this work was eventually published:
Sanborn, P.T. and T.M. Ballard. 1991. Combustion losses of sulphur from conifer foliage: Implications of chemical form and soil nitrogen status. Biogeochemistry 12: 129–134.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00001810
The remainder of the work was documented in this Project Completion Report to SCBC, dated February 28, 1990, and entitled "Effects of Prescribed Fire on Sulphur in Forest Soils".
Thirty-four data files were selected for archival retention. There is some redundancy of content among these, with some formatted for incorporation as tables in the report appendices, and others containing some of the same data, but set up as input files for a statistics program. These account for almost all of the data listed in the Project Completion Report appendices. No glossary of variable names is provided, but these should be identifiable by referring to the Report.
With support from the Muskwa-Kechika Trust Fund as a Seed Grant, Dr. Paul Sanborn carried out a pilot study of soils in relation to prescribed burning in the Northern Rocky Mountains, in collaboration with Perry Grilz, then a Range Officer in the Ministry of Forests. Sanborn and Grilz conducted 3 days of field work in July 2001. Sanborn wanted to test the utility of plant-derived opal (phytoliths) as a soil indicator of vegetation history, in the hope of distinguishing natural grasslands from those created by anthropogenic burning.